Monday, August 11, 2008

Sunday was a fun day

After a pretty great day on Saturday, we started out Sunday pretty slow. I was the first up, followed by Taipan, and then Taisim. We decided to hang out upstairs for a bit - initially we went up to feed the fish, and decided to stay and play. Taisim found some dolls in the toybox, and Taipan wanted to make a Train-O-Rama for the Christmas doll (it's a soft doll dressed in green & red that says "My 1st Christmas"). So we brought up some of our trains, and got them all to move at the same time. Christmas Doll seemed to enjoy it.

After that I brought out a Blues Clues board game that a friend handed down to us. We had a lot of fun playing it. For where Taipan is with board games, this one was just about perfect - he loves Blue, he loves finding clues (a renewed interest since discovering Shana on PlayhouseDisney), and he enjoyed skidooing and setting up the game and all of that stuff.

Yuta woke up, I worked out, the kids did some computer games, and then Yuta had to go to work, and shortly after that we went grocery shopping. On the way there Taipan told me that he wanted to make blueberry pie, so I picked up pie crusts and blueberry filling just in case. I had fresh blueberries at home, but having never made anything other than pumpkin pie, I didn't know what else I'd need and wanted to be prepared.

So after Taisim fell asleep, and Taipan and I did another few rounds of Blue's Clues, we started making blueberry pie. Turns out that I had everything we needed, so we got to work:

I was more than a little intimidated by the lattice top crust, though looking back on it I'm not sure why. I guess because I'd never done it before and didn't have confidence in my abilities. I also paralyzed when the recipe said to flute the edges. Um. Ok. I had no idea what that meant, but thanks to google I learned that it was nothing to be afraid of.

The kids aren't interested in eating it. Yuta said it was good.

The other thing we had planned for last night was hair cuts. So after Taisim woke up from her nap, I started getting things ready. Taipan wanted to watch a movie in the living room, so that's where I set things up. I put a sheet over the carpet, then put two chairs on the sheet, and had towels and baby powder at the ready.

Historically Taipan does not like getting his hair cut. Usually it's pretty long and gets cut when he thinks it's interfering in some way (the last time he had it cut he asked me to do it after it kept getting in his mouth while he was eating). Yesterday I told him I'd noticed that he was pushing it out of his eyes a lot, and he agreed to have it trimmed.

After I was ready I asked Taipan to come sit down and he told me that he wasn't ready yet. I told him to let me know when he was ready. About 30 minutes later he went over to the chair, and I explained everything I was doing ... first I gave him a bowl of jelly beans, and put a movie on to help keep him focused on something other than the hair cut. He was ok with me stuffing a towel into the collar of his shirt - he hasn't liked that in the past. Having the towel certainly helped with the discomfort having hair all over. I also used baby powder to help get the hair off and soothe the itching. He really liked that.

So I cut his hair, and then Taisim said she wanted a hair cut too, so I trimmed the back of her hair and her bangs. Taipan said he wanted to help me, and that he would help her with baby powder when she get itchy.

Long story short ... check out these pictures. It was a very gradual progression from Taipan helping put some baby power on Taisim's neck and arms, to her wanting some in her hands, and then this happened when I left the room to get fresh clothes for them:

I decided not to stop their fun ... I just asked them to stay on the sheet. Of course it didn't occur to me that even if they stayed on the sheet that the powder would circulate through the air and we'd end up with a dusting of baby powder throughout our living room. Even if it had occurred to me I probably wouldn't have done anything differently.

During the shot where Taipan is dumping it on his head he's saying, "Look, Mom, it's like a shower!" He also got Taisim's head. And Yuta came in the door from work in the middle of all of this too ... I can only imagine what was going through his head.

Eventually the bottle was empty, so we started the clean up. I took both kids to the bathroom to wipe them off and change their clothes, and Yuta gathered up the sheets & towels.

We all wiped down surfaces, and then when I started to vacuum, the kids wanted to help.

The living room is back to normal, and the kids smell WONDERFUL today.